1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a flat panel display device, and more particularly to a flat panel display device including at least one display panel.
2. Description of Related Art
In general, a flat panel display (FPD) device includes a liquid crystal display (LCD) device, an organic EL device, and so on. Such a FPD device has an advantage of a wider display area compared to other conventional display devices, such as a cathode ray tube (CRT).
FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view illustrating a conventional liquid crystal (LC) panel for use in the LCD device. Hereinafter, the FPD device is explained focusing on the LCD device.
As shown in FIG. 1, the LC panel 10 includes an upper substrate 12 and a lower substrate 14 with an LC layer 16 interposed therebetween. The upper substrate 12 includes color filters having R(red), G(green) and B(blue) pigments. The lower substrate 14 includes thin film transistors (TFTs) as a switching element. The upper substrate 12 and the lower substrate 14 are sealed by a sealant 18 to prevent the liquid crystal layer 16 from leaking.
Meanwhile, even though not shown, an organic EL device includes an upper substrate and a lower substrate. The lower substrate generally includes TFTs and an organic EL layer. The two substrates of the organic EL device are sealed by a sealant to prevent the organic EL layer from being damaged by external environment, such as oxygen, moisture or the like.
In such FPD devices, one solution to achieve the FPD device having a wide display area D is to narrow a width W of the sealant 18. However, such an approach may degrade the reliability of the sealant 18.
FIGS. 2 and 3 are perspective views illustrating a conventional flat panel display device having at least two display panels (i.e., multi-panel display device).
The multi-panel display device is designed to connect a plurality of display panels as shown in FIG. 1 to each other for a large-size display. Korean utility model publication No. 1999-14381 and Japanese patent publication No. 10-279672 disclose a technique that two display panels configure one display panel by minimizing a joint portion where two display panels are joined.
As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the portable multi-panel display device 20 includes a body 22, a case 24 and two display panels 10. Link members 30 are coupled to the body 22 and the case 24 through connection pins 32. The link members 30 are connected to the connection pins 32 and may rotate so that the case 24 can be folded or unfolded from the body 22.
When the body 22 and the case 24 are unfolded flatly as shown in FIG. 3, a user pushes the display panels 5 in arrow directions using pulling means 34 respectively, so that the two display panels 10 contact each other to configure one display screen.
The multi-panel display device described above should have the smallest possible joint portion between the two display panels in order to increase the one screen display effect. In this case, the one screen display effect refers to the ability of a plurality of display panels to appear to be one display screen. For the purpose of increasing the one screen display effect, a joint portion must be really narrow in width. Therefore, the sealant 18 having a small width must be formed. However, it may degrade the reliability of the sealant 18.
To overcome the problems described above, preferred embodiments of the present invention provide a flat panel display device having a wide display area.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a flat panel display device having at least two display panels that can increase one screen display effect.
It is a still another object of the present invention to provide a flat panel display device having excellent sealant reliability.
In order to achieve the above object, the preferred embodiments of the present invention provide a flat panel display device comprising at least one display panel. The display panel includes first and second substrates opposite to each other, and a sealant sealing the first and second substrates, wherein at least one of the first and second substrates has at least one protrusion portion formed on a portion of an inner surface thereof to adhere to the sealant.
The preferred embodiment of the present invention further pvovides a flat panel display device comprising: a plurality of display panels each including first and second substrates opposite to each other and a sealant sealing the first and second substrates, wherein the two adjacent display panels contact each other on a joint portion, and at least one of the first and second substrates of each of the two adjacent display panels has at least one protrusion portion formed on a portion of an inner surface thereof corresponding to the joint portion to adhere to the sealant.
The preferred embodiment of the present invention further provides a flat panel display device comprising: a plurality of display panels, the two adjacent display panels contacting each other on a joint portion, each of the plurality of the display panels including first and second substrates opposite to each other and first and second sealant, the first sealant sealing portions of the first and second substrates corresponding to the joint portion, the second sealant sealing the rest portions of the first and second substrates, wherein at least one of the first and second substrates has at least one protrusion portion formed on a portion of an inner surface thereof to adhere to the first sealant.
The sealant has a width of about 300 xcexcm. The plurality of the protrusion portions have one of bar-type and dot-type shapes. A sum of a width of the protrusion portion and a distance between the two adjacent protrusion portion is less than 50 xcexcm. The protrusion portion on the first substrate is formed at an opposite position of the protrusion portion on the second substrate. The protrusion portion on the first substrate is formed at a location corresponding to a gap between the two adjacent protrusion portions on the second substrate. The display panel further includes first and second electrodes respectively formed on an inner surface of the first and second substrates. The first and the second electrodes are made of the same material as the plurality of the protrusion portions.
The flat panel display device has the following advantages. Since a width of the sealant is reduced due to a plurality of protrusion portions, a flat panel display having a wide display area can be achieved without degrading sealant reliability. Since a width of the joint portion of the two display panels is reduced due to a high sealant reliability, the multi-panel display device having increased one screen display effect can be obtained.